Friday, March 25, 2016

Top 5 Ways to Make Your Face Paint Kit Sparkle!

Spring Cleaning!

And best of all our
calendars are finally starting to fill up with gigs! Yay! Thank you
warmer weather!

But all of these great
things are also a reminder that we haven't touched our kits in a bit.. Maybe
they are little dingy, a little smudgy, or maybe they are just a complete and
total disaster.

(thanks to the owner of this kit for sharing a picture! You shall remain anonymous...lol)

It’s okay! Admitting
there’s a problem is the first step to getting a solution. So let’s take
care of our kits, and make them sparkly and new again! Because let’s face
it…. You don’t want to be the face painter with the gross, messy kit. Remember...

Messy = Amateur

Clean = Professional

Professional = More $$$$

Step 1. Clean that paint
tray!

We all get messy trays,
whether you re-pot your paint into the super awesome ones from the Art Factory
like I do (found here,) or you use the foam dividers that come with most laptop
boxes(found here,) sooner or later they all turn into a mess. I will address these
issues one at a time.

First: Repairing paint
cakes that have “exploded.”

Sometimes while
traveling with your paint, you may open up your case to notice that one or more
colors have exploded, covering your yellow with green, or your rainbow with
gold.. It’s pretty much the worst. But don’t worry, we can fix it.
The colors that are most likely to explode are ones that have dried out
completely. They are crumbly in texture and need a little rejuvenation.

To fix an exploded cake,
take your tray and gently tap all of the destruction out onto a paper towel.
If there there are big enough chunks of the exploded cake, gather them
back into their designated spot and give them a really good squish. Push
really hard, because you want to try and compress them back into a regular consistency.
I use a quarter wrapped in a piece of old t-shirt. If the color is a
metallic, adding a few drops of water and compressing them should do the trick.
If the color is also very hard and difficult to compress, you may be
better off pulverizing the paint into tiny pieces and then adding water a
little bit at a time. Allow the water to soak for a couple of hours and
then try compressing again. If you added too much water, there isn’t
really anything you can do except to let it evaporate over a couple of days, so
be careful to not add too much!

If the exploded cake is
a split cake, and it was already running low, then you’re better off making or
buying a new split cake. Repairing one that has gone to pieces is a true
test of patience. It’s the same principals as fixing the solid colors,
but in sections. I wish you luck.

Second: Refilling Empty
Colors!

We all love our black
and white right? So keeping them fairly full is super important!
There’s nothing like showing up to a gig and realizing that you’ve run
out of your favorite black...

So while cleaning your
kit, take some time and refill all of your favorite colors that are running
low.

*TIP* if you are using
the amazing trays from the Art Factory(found here,) DO NOT FILL YOUR COLORS ALL
OF THE WAY TO THE TOP. I have learned the hard way that this is a mistake
and will make your kit a total mess. Keep colors at least 1/4” from the top
to avoid a mess.

Third: Cleaning the
trays!

There are lots of ways
to clean them(baby wipes, paper towels, old t-shirts,) but my favorite way is
to just use one of my face paint sponges.

Just wet the sponge,
wipe away as much paint as the sponge with hold, the rinse and repeat!

No baby wipes used, no
extra trash to clean up. I always clean the actual trays last, after
refilling color, repairs cracked cakes, and also giving the box a wipe down.
Also, don’t forget to clean the bottom of the tray(chunks of exploded
colors may be hiding down there, just waiting to make a mess!)

Step 2: Clean your water
container!

If you’re using the
super awesome metal water containers from the Art Factory(found here) then
cleaning your water jar is quick and easy. Just give it a swish of water to get
the excess paint out and then wash it like your regular dishes(I don’t recommend
the dishwasher for the lid. I hand wash mine.) The stainless steel
doesn’t allow the paint to leave marks and makes it easy to wash with regular
soap and sponge.

If you’re using a
plastic container for your water, then you may have washed it and found that
there are still paint marks that won’t come off. The easiest way to
remove face paint from a plastic container is with a Magic Eraser. You
can get them at any store(I get mine in a big box from Costco) and they work
really great. Just wet them and rub it on the stains. Poof! No more
stains.

Step 3: Clean those
brushes!

(Thanks again to our anonymous picture provider!)

Brushes build up paint
in their ferrules when used a lot(a ferrule is the metal thing that the
bristles are held onto the handle with.) So it’s best to clean them
really well in between uses so that you don’t accidentally tint your white to
pink, or your yellow to black.

First: Rinse your
brushes in warm water and remove any excess paint pigment.

Second: Use soap and
warm water to get any remaining pigment out of the bristles and ferrule.

Third: I like to shape
the tips of my brushes into a point and let them dry laying flat or hanging
upside down in the brush easel(found here.)

*Don’t forget to wipe
down your brush container! If you’re using the easel like I do, a wet
sponge or magic eraser should clean up any mess.

Step 4: Clean those
sponges!

I find cleaning sponges
to be incredibly easy for me, because I just place them into a laundry bag, zip
them up and then wash them in my washing machine. When they are done, I
place them into my dryer. Easy!

If you want to hand wash
your sponges(maybe you only have a few) then you can wash them the same way
that you did with your brushes.

-Rinse out excess paint
pigment.

-Soap them up and
massage out any leftover paint.

-Rinse until the water
runs clean. They can dry laying on a towel.

Step 5: Spruce up all of
your other gear!

Face painters use a lot
more gear than just our paints and brushes! Here are a few more things that you
may have forgotten to clean up.

Give you table a wipe
down and WD-40 any stuck joints or locks.

Wash your table cloth
and make sure there aren’t any rips.

Open up your chair and
give everything a good scrub, and brush off any glitter, grass, or dirt from the
seat cover. Make sure that you have your chair harness packed and ready so you're not struggling later!

And last but not least,
restock your business cards so that you’re ready when people ask for one!

PHEW! I’m exhausted!
Just typing that was tiring… but you and I both know that once this stuff
is done, you’ll feel a ton better. You’ll show up to your next gig with
real pride in your kit. Moms and kids will ooooo and ahhhhh over all of
your neat stuff and pretty colors. They will ask, where do you get
something like that?! They will want to know if you’re an artist, because
only a real artist would have a setup like that!!!

Please let me know in the comments if I forgot something or if I can better clarify something!! Thanks for reading! Come back next week for something new!

-Ashley

p.s. * I am
aware that I am probably over explaining all of this. But I know that if I were
looking for this type of information I would want it to be thorough. So I
tried my best to be informative. Please let me know if I let anything out!*